I know that this may be sacrilegious considering that I am a student from the University of Kansas, but I really like Kansas State and the way that the team is playing right now.

Everyone needs a good rival. And I think respect is something that’s important in a rivalry.

Behind Frank Martin’s sideline-stomping tantrums, ill-fitting mobster suits and stares that could probably turn someone to stone, I do think there is a guy who cares a lot about his players and the game of basketball.

Just look at what he’s done this season. After the UNLV loss in December, many wrote the team off. Right before the game it was announced that two of K-State’s veteran players, Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly, would not be playing because they received impermissible benefits at a clothing store. Pullen missed three games and Kelly four.

And the team kept spiraling downward, opening the Big 12 season with a pair of losses against Oklahoma State and Colorado at home.

Finally K-State managed to beat a lackluster Texas Tech team at Bramlage, but that was followed by another pair of losses. The team’s trip to Allen Fieldhouse was embarrassing, and following that game it lost one of its big men, Wally Judge.

It seemed like K-State hit rock bottom. The projected No. 3 team in the nation was in shambles. How much of that had to do with overly high expectations? How much was due to bad luck? And how much of it was Martin and his over-the-top coaching style, we won’t know. The good thing about rock bottom, however, is that there is only one way to go.

So what did that Cats do? Well, to me, it appears they got angry and scared. Jacob Pullen said he wasn’t going to play in the NIT tournament and he meant it. When a freshly crowned, No. 1 Jayhawk team traveled to Manhattan, a desperate Wildcat team was waiting to claw its way back into the NCAA tournament. And that’s exactly what it did. I was at that game, and K-State was a completely different team. It came alive. Every shot was contested, every rebound was important. And Jacob Pullen was playing a game that even I had to be impressed with. The Big 12 player of the year candidate came to life with an unbelievable 38 points against a No. 1 ranked team.

That win lit a fire for the Wildcats, more than even Frank Martin’s wide-eyed, spit spewing screams could. Since then, K-State has been unbeatable. Winning a hard-fought contest against Missouri at home and then traveling to Texas to control a game against a team that had the Big 12 conference title in its grasps.

Now the question for Jayhawk fans is what kind of threat will Kansas be? Can they beat a healthy Kansas team in a neutral site either at the Big 12 tournament or even during the NCAA tournament? Has K-State finally found its stride? Or has it just been lucky to face teams who are down on their luck? I’m not sure, but I do know that I would not want to risk facing that Frank Martin stare come mid-March.

— Edited by Emily Soetaert